


strip his sleeve and show his scars

by omphale23



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Community: 1sentence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-30
Updated: 2011-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-19 10:02:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/199640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omphale23/pseuds/omphale23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Given the choice between falling and drowning, Dick chooses to jump.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	strip his sleeve and show his scars

**Comfort**

They don’t escape the cold, even wrapped in the same blanket.  
     
 **Kiss**

Lew looks away when Dick's new wife meets them at the door.  
     
 **Soft**

It's two years before Dick stops expecting the scratch of army wool in his bed; it's nearly five before he learns to relax on cotton sheets again.  
     
 **Pain**

Lew suffers three days from a headache and ignores the ringing in his ears.  
     
 **Potatoes**

After six weeks on the front line they don't look too closely at half-empty mess tins.

 **Rain**

The edge of Dick's helmet is uniquely placed to drip rain, cold and drizzling, down the back of his neck.  
     
 **Chocolate**

Lew claims that he never liked chocolate in the first place, but they both know he prefers the satisfaction of shared small comforts.  
     
 **Happiness**

When Lew says _happy_ , Dick hears _sober_ and clears his throat before he can respond.  
     
 **Telephone**

If the telephone rings, he doesn't always answer.  
     
 **Ears**

It's impossible for him to mistake the rhythmic rustle of sheets and Lew's quiet gasps.

 **Name**

He's Nixon, Nix, Lew, even Captain Nixon, but never, not once, does Dick call him Lewis.  
     
 **Sensual**

Lew licks a drop of whiskey from the edge of the bottle and something Dick's been holding tight snaps.  
     
 **Death**

It's all around them and yet they're untouched; they'll spend the rest of their lives feeling guilty.  
     
 **Sex**

They almost never will.  
     
 **Touch**

But sometimes, sometimes they need to remember that there's a world outside of this moment, and Lew will blink and reach out to find Dick waiting.

 **Weakness**

If Lew's weakness is destroying himself, Dick's is watching him succeed.  
     
 **Tears**

Everyone pretends that he doesn't shatter, that he isn't weeping at the funeral.  
     
 **Speed**

Each Christmas card, each stuttering silent telephone call, reminds them that time only moves away, never backward, always faster.  
     
 **Wind**

Fifty years later, the greatest rush he can remember is that endless hesitation as the light turns green.  
     
 **Freedom**

Dick doesn't allow himself regret.

 **Life**

Lew has nightmares, but he learns to count himself back to sleep.  
     
 **Jealousy**

Dick knows better than to ask Lew to stand up as his witness, no matter how disappointed Ethel will pretend to be at the reception.  
     
 **Hands**

Neither of them admits that Lew's hands shake as he lights a cigarette that morning.  
     
 **Taste**

Dick doesn't smoke, but he quietly allows himself the luxury of tasting the drift of ashes as Lew exhales.  
     
 **Devotion**

It's more binding than anything they’d consider love.

 **Forever**

Dick recites his vows, and hears a cough rattle through the air, registers it as Lew's only objection.  
     
 **Blood**

Lew starts calling himself Lady Macbeth; he's waiting for Dick to find it funny.  
     
 **Sickness**

Dick watches his men fall, one by one, and he blames himself each time.  
     
 **Melody**

He sings the songs his mother sang, all of them in German and all of them defined by faith.  
     
 **Star**

For years, there is a star in the window of a Pennsylvania farmhouse.

 **Home**

Lew is waiting for Dick in New Jersey.  
     
 **Confusion**

He can never bring himself to say the word, but he's learned the meaning of snafu and doesn’t bother to disagree with Lew’s complaint.  
     
 **Fear**

He wasn't afraid in battle, threw himself headfirst into the fray, but with someone to lose, Dick is suddenly unable to pretend.  
     
 **Lightning/Thunder**

Distant barrages remind Dick of summer storms, all crash and flash and the sharp tang of ozone lingering after.  
     
 **Bonds**

Ethel and Grace go shopping together, tired of waiting in a corner, no longer pretending to listen to all the stories their men don't tell.

 **Market**

In a tiny stall along the Seine, Dick bought a cigarette case that he keeps in a drawer next to his bed; Ethel doesn't ask about the engraving but he takes it out, sometimes, and calls himself a coward.  
     
 **Technology**

It would have been enough if he could only have seen Lew's face the last time they spoke.  
     
 **Gift**

He sends a bottle of scotch each Christmas, because Dick always did appreciate a good joke and Lew is still addicted to that moment before their laughter shakes loose.  
     
 **Smile**

Lew finds himself working harder than he ever has, trying to get under Dick's armor.  
     
 **Innocence**

A shroud of innocence hangs over every homecoming.

 **Completion**

They sit in darkened hotel ballrooms and tell each other it was a job worth doing, done well, and then they raise a glass for absent friends and carefully avoid each other's eyes.  
     
 **Clouds**

Sometimes when the thunder rolls over the fields, he unthinkingly turns to make sure Lew is safe within reach.  
     
 **Sky**

Grace sleeps on his shoulder in the first class cabin, and Lew almost convinces himself he's found peace.  
     
 **Heaven**

For a moment, after he signs the papers that make the farm a reality, Dick wonders whether he really wanted this at all.  
     
 **Hell**

Until Perconte runs back into town, Lew assumes his definition of hell will always be Bastogne.

 **Sun**

Lew sits cross-legged in the dark and traces the constellations between freckles with the tips of his fingers.  
     
 **Moon**

Moonlight isn't romance and roses when they patrol; it's deadly sharp and Dick learns quickly to hate the way it shines on clean faces and hands.  
     
 **Waves**

Given the choice between falling and drowning, Dick chooses to jump.  
     
 **Hair**

Lew runs his finger along a pale line of skin after Dick's trip to the barber.  
     
 **Supernova**

They sit in a coffee shop while Dick reads an article about astronomy; Lew is ignoring him to watch the sunlight bounce off the silverware.

  



End file.
